Making a 16th-Century Painting Canvas

Name: Robin Reich
Date and Time:

2016.2.15, 12:00pm

Location: Making and Knowing Lab
Subject: Sewing the canvas

• Begin with an approximately 1' square of canvas, a piece of cotton twine that is a few inches longer than the perimeter of the canvas, and a large scrap piece of canvas (a longer strip - at least 8" or so is better, but it can be as narrow as 3").
• Fold over each edge of the canvas about 3/4"

• Lay the twine against the raw edge and fold again, the same amount - the twine will be sitting inside of a smaller square of canvas, just at the edge. Secure the folds with pins, and leave the tails of the twine hanging (do not tie them).

• Take the scrap piece of canvas and pull threads from the long side. Start with a good pile of threads.

• Using the scrap threads, sew down the hem of the canvas using a whip stich
  • thread the needle, leaving a tail of at least an inch
  • enter the fabric with the hem edge facing you, just below the hem, pushing the needle into the fabric (rather than beginning the stich blindly from the back side)
  • pull the thread through, leaving about 1" of thread, then re-enter the fabric just above the hem edge from the back side
  • pull the thread through until it is taught, but be careful not to pull it so tightly that it breaks
  • take the 1" of thread that you left hanging and lay it along the hem edge - as you sew, wrap your stiches around this thread to secure it
  • when your thread runs out or breaks, thread a new one, twist the tails of the old and new, and continue as before
  • as you move around the canvas, put a few stitches into the corners where the folds overlap, so that they lay flat

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Name: Robin Reich
Date and Time:

2016.2.16, 9:30pm

Location: Robin's home
Subject: Constructing the frame and stretching the canvas

• piece together a wooden artist's frame that is slightly larger (2" or so) on each side than your finished canvas
• cut 4 pieces of twine, each one roughly 10x the length of one side of the canvas
• using a yarn needle, sew the canvas to the frame, one side at a time
  • as before, thread the needle with 1" or so of a tail
  • enter the canvas from either side, just below the hem stitches, starting from the corner
  • loop the twine around the top of the frame, leaving at least 1" between the canvas and the frame
  • re-enter the canvas from the other side, no more than 1" from your last entry point, but preferably closer together - roughly 1/3" apart (this is helpful on a smaller canvas to ease the tension on each entry point and to make the stretching more uniform, but on a larger canvas the entry points can be farther apart)
  • when you reach the other corner, remove the needle and knot the tail ends of the twine to the nearest loop
  • repeat on the side across from the first one, so that the canvas will be stretched evenly across the frame - do not worry about the canvas being taught at this stage
• tighten the twine around the edge of the frame by pulling each loop and re-tying the knot at each end, again alternating sides, until the canvas is stretched across the frame with no visible slack and it makes a slight reverberating sound when struck
• tie the tail ends of the twine that come from inside the canvas to the frame as well - do this securely, but not as tightly as possible
• trim the tails of the twine

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Name: Robin Reich
Date and Time:

2016.2.19, 10:00am

Location: Making and Knowing Lab
Subject: Priming the Canvas with Rabbit Skin Glue

• Heat the rabbit skin glue to between 50 and 55* C in a double boiler or bain marie
  • make sure not to leave any concentrated or less saturated areas of glue
  • paint in any direction, but after you have laid down the glue layer, go over it again in a different direction
• leave the canvas to dry for 30 minutes in a well-ventilated place, such as a fume hood
• lay on a second layer of glue as before, and allow to dry again

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